Forwarded message from Harry Spier

[Deshpande, Madhav]

I am forwarding the message below to the Indology list.  I suppose Harry can read replies from the list archives.

Madhav M. Deshpande

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007, Harry Spier wrote:


>
> Dear list members,
>
> I have been asked to give some information on the historical context
> of Gayatri mantras.
>
> On doing a search of the on-line Bloomfield's Concordance (for
> pracodayaat) it can be seen that Gayatri mantras (after the original
> in the RV)are listed as in the Taittiriya Aranyaka 10 ( a rescension
> of the Mahanarayana Upanishad) , Mahanarayana Upanishad and Maitrayani
> Samhita.
>
> In looking at the introduction to Mahanarayana Upanishad by Swami
> Vimalananda and the introduction to G.A. Jacobs
> mahaanaaraaya.nopani.sad, their are two rescensions of the
> Mahanarayana Upanishad, one attached to the Taittiriya Aranyaka
> (though considered supplementary even by Saaya.na and
> Bha.t.tabhaaskara) and one attached to the Atharva Veda.
>
> 1. I very very vaguely recall some note somewhere saying that the
> Mahanarayana Upanishad was added to the Taittiriya Aranyaka from
> another sakha . Can anyone confirm whether this is correct or not.
>
> 2) My real question is whether it is possible to localize to single
> school this early development of Gayatri mantras I.e. mantras of the
> form:
> ....vidhmahe
> ...dhiimahi
> ....pracodayaat
>
> before they proliferated in the more medieval and tantric schools.
>
> 3) Also can someone give me an approximate date (range of dates) for
> the mahaanaaraya.na upani.sad .
>
> Many thanks,
> Harry Spier
>